After watching his Green Bay Packers give up 15 points in the final 2:09 of regulation and subsequently lose in overtime, Aaron Rodgers knows the loss to the Seattle Seahawks to the NFC Championship will haunt him for years to come.
Aaron Rodgers on NFC Championship loss: ‘We gave it away’
The Packers quarterback says he’ll think about the shocking loss for the rest of his career.
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
“It’s going to be a missed opportunity that we’re probably going to think about the rest of my career,” Rodgers said after the game, according to Dan Hanzus of NFL.com. “We were the better team today and we played well enough to win and we can’t blame anybody but ourselves.”
The Packers were sitting on a 12-point lead with just over two minutes left on the clock. But Russell Wilson scampered into the end zone for a quick score, Green Bay let the resulting onside kick slip out of their grip and Marshawn Lynch broke away for a long touchdown to take an improbable lead with 1:25 left. Mason Crosby hit a clutch field goal to send it to overtime, but Wilson completed a 35-yard touchdown pass to Jermaine Kearse on the first possession of the extra period to end it.
That late rally was preceded by the Seahawks scoring on a fake field goal in the third quarter.
“You can’t let them complete a pass for a touchdown on a fake field goal, you can’t give up an onside kick and you can’t not get any first downs in the first quarter and expect to win,” Rodgers said. “And that’s on top of being really poor in the red zone in the first half. Put it all together and that’s how you lose games. We had a great opportunity. We were right on the cusp.”
Rodgers and the Packers now face a long offseason to mull the shocking loss.
“You just go home, think about it, and move on,” he said. “Start getting ready for the offseason program. This one’s going to hurt for a while because of the close proximity to the feeling when the clock hits zero and you’re ahead. We gave it away.”
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